fancherkaren
Guest
Is it okay to offer a promissory note and/or a payment plan to a patient for whom you have already discounted their bill? Can anyone point me to a reference?
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Wiki Discount Billing
- Thread starter fancherkaren
- Start date
Do they have any source of insurance? Also what was the reason that the service was discounted?
fancherkaren
Guest
Yes, the patient has commercial insurance; however, at the time the service was provided, we were not yet in network. Of course, the carrier made the patient responsible for the entire balance. Our billing manager decided to offer the patient a discount, and we would also like to further assist the patient with a promissory note or a payment plan. We have hearsay information that that is not allowed, but we would like to know for sure.
Generally to be able to provide a discount a financial hardship and a good faith effort at collection needs to be attempted and documented. If the patient knew at the time of service that you were out of network and agreed to the service anyways that would have been the time to obtain a payment arrangement in writing.
General rule of thumb...
1. Your office needs to have a policy for discounts and payment arrangements. Such as payment in full must be met within 3 months of the date of service, etc. This is part of a compliance program and a Compliance Officer should be able to assist you with this.
2. Discounts should (as a rule) not be applied to a deductible or co-ins with a contracted carrier as contractual discount has already been applied and this amount is an agreement between the patient and their carrier.
3. Most discounts when appropriate are based on a prompt payment rules at the time the discount is applied based on the OIG guidelines. To ensure that your program is within the OIG guidelines you can reference https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/docs/alertsandbulletins/121994.html
General rule of thumb...
1. Your office needs to have a policy for discounts and payment arrangements. Such as payment in full must be met within 3 months of the date of service, etc. This is part of a compliance program and a Compliance Officer should be able to assist you with this.
2. Discounts should (as a rule) not be applied to a deductible or co-ins with a contracted carrier as contractual discount has already been applied and this amount is an agreement between the patient and their carrier.
3. Most discounts when appropriate are based on a prompt payment rules at the time the discount is applied based on the OIG guidelines. To ensure that your program is within the OIG guidelines you can reference https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/docs/alertsandbulletins/121994.html